Hot on the heels of the one-two infinite-mass punch that was Flash #12 and the Flash Annual, the Flash creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are featured in an interview over at Comic Book Resources. Within, the duo look ahead to their upcoming “Gorilla Warfare” arc, teased in the Annual, as well as September’s issue #0.
Follow the jump for more about their new take on Barry Allen’s Flash origin, Speed Force Envy, their main chimp-spirations and more!
As part of a weeklong look at the upcoming New 52 Annuals, DC Comics’ Source blog has a new post up with some new information on the upcoming Flash Annual #1, by Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato and a cast of artists working from Manapul’s layouts. From Brian Buccellato:
“We couldn’t be happier with the collection of talent we assembled to work from Francis’ layouts. Broken up into chapters, on art duties we have Marcus To, Diogenes Neves, Marcio Takara, Wes Craig, and FLASH legend Scott Kolins! We just had to offer Scott the Rogues ‘flashback chapter,’ and were delighted that he accepted. His take on ‘The Old Rogues’ is new and fresh, yet pays homage to the gang’s history. It might sound clichéd, but it’s truly everything we hoped for and more.”
In the post, Buccellato also promises that the Annual will deliver the first Rogues team-up of the New 52 Flash series, as well as the much-anticipated tale of their journey from “…the old ‘gun-toting’ Rogues that everyone remembers from previous continuity, and the new meta-powered incarnations. In the Annual, we finally reveal HOW the Rogues got their super powers and at what cost.”
Check it out at The Source! Flash Annual #1 is in stores August 29.
MTV Geek has a five-page preview of next week’s The Flash #12 by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato.
Manapul is back on art this month, following a short breather. In the preview, we get a new look at (formerly Golden) Glider and more of the recently-debuted Heat Wave. Plus…Kelson!
Newsarama interviews the Flash creative team about the upcoming Flash #0, which will update Barry Allen’s origin, and what’s coming in the second year of the New 52 Flash.
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato have been re-introducing the Rogues one at a time through Flash #6-12, building toward a major event in Flash Annual #1 in August. After that, Flash #0 will retell the Flash’s origin. Together, the Annual and the #0 issue will answer a number of readers’ questions, like: How did the Rogues get internal powers? Who raised Barry after his mother was killed and his father framed?
Manapul: In issue #0, people are finally going to see what happened after he lost his parents, and what happened right after he got hit by lightning. The Barry Allen we’ve been writing since we took over the book last year has a past that hasn’t been revealed, and it’s an important part of why he does what he does. So we’ve addressed a lot of those things head-on in the #0 issue.
They also make the point that the New 52 Barry Allen is very different in personality from the pre-Flashpoint Barry Allen, and one of their goals with the new origin story is to solidly ground him in this timeline.
Manapul: Well, we’ve created a lot more emotional ties to this particular timeline for Barry Allen. There’s no way he could ever see himself going back in time to screw up time or to save his mom or anything like that. So we’re giving him a very strong emotional anchor in this timeline to hold that line, to never go back to the past.
Again and again they return to the theme of moving forward, rather than backward, including in the way they look, well, back at the Flash’s origin.
Buccellato: … I know the story of his mother was told in Flash: Rebirth, and that’s a valid reason for his choice to become a hero. But we felt like we needed to go a little bit deeper.
…
Like Francis said, our Barry is more forward-moving and less reflective and looking back. So we needed to show why he’s that way and why we did this subtle shift in Barry’s personality and motivation.
Francis Manapul confirms that he’s back on art for #12, #0, and beyond, and Brian Buccellato confirms that amidst all the creative changes of the New 52, they’re sticking around. “We have a big plan for what we’re doing on the Flash…”
So what does come next? All we know is it will spin out of the Flash Annual, and one hint: “War is coming to Central City.”
Read the full interview at Newsarama.
In an interview posted on Friday, Flash co-writers Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato talked to comic book resources about the arc of their speedster saga. Going into this week’s first New 52 Grodd story, and upcoming reintroductions of Weather Wizard, Heat Wave and (Golden) Glider, the Flash team delved into the existing relationship between the Rogues and the road to September’s Flash Annual.
Manapul kicks things off by explaining the crescendo of the series thus far:
Francis Manapul: I think there’s a theme that the book is really about overwhelming the Flash. In the first arc, we created this villain who could really be in multiple places at once, so in that sense, the Flash is overwhelmed physically and also overwhelmed emotionally because of the fact that he’s [fighting] an old friend, a guy that he grew up with. It’s kind of an overwhelming time for Barry Allen, having discovered that the weight of the world is on his shoulders. On top of that, the Rogues are slowly starting to get back together; we’re slowly showing what kind of a threat they would be to Barry Allen.
For highlights, including choices made during the redesign of the Rogues and the team’s answer to the Wally West question, follow the jump!
THE FLASH #12
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale AUGUST 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Setting up THE ROGUES as a team as the next major storyline for the series begins!
• GLIDER takes center stage!
What a gorgeous cover. DC’s August Justice League solicitations are up at The Source. The cover for the Flash Annual was revealed last week.
For the full Annual solicit, plus Kid Flash solo and Jay Garrick’s Earth 2 adventures, follow the jump…